By Pip Hinman
The complete irrationality of capitalism, the militaristic system which is based on making money from every single type of anti-human activity — including war — was dramatically highlighted for me again last week as I watched a Lateline interview with the French foreign minister.
In the space of just 20 minutes the foreign minister blithely claimed that France (a "great" country) needed nuclear weapons as a deterrent, having been invaded three times this century, and that it would fully support moves towards total nuclear disarmament and sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty in 1996.
His position is completely illogical. While claiming to support total nuclear disarmament, he insisted that France must have the right to keep its nuclear deterrent.
The Chirac government has made it very clear that "low yield" nuclear tests (ranging from five to 500 tonnes of TNT equivalent) must be allowed within the framework of the CTBT. This will cost the French people around $2 billion, not to mention unknown health and pollution costs.
This makes a mockery of the purpose and intent of the treaty. These warmongers want "low yield" nuclear tests in order to develop "operational" and "useable" nuclear weapons into the future.
In plain speak, this means that the French government has no intention of disarming. Instead it has set on a course of developing "small" and "flexible" nuclear weapons which could be targeted against the Third World. Such an arsenal would also give it some leverage with the non-nuclear imperialist powers, such as Germany, in the new European Union.
In a similar vein, the US Pentagon is insisting that a "credible and capable nuclear force is essential for national security". The whole deterrent idea gives the real agenda of the imperialist states away. There will be no significant disarmament after the signing of the CTBT.
A recent vote in the US Senate to approve "low yield" nuclear tests confirms this. Proponents of the tests say they will only be two kilograms TNT equivalent. Opponents, some of whom were Republicans, say they could be at least 20 tonnes each. Whatever the amount, the main point is that the US government, like the French, has no intention of getting rid of its nuclear weapons. (It shouldn't be forgotten either that the French government is one of the major suppliers of nuclear technology to the Third World.)
A number of international conventions already outlaw nuclear weapons altogether: the Geneva Convention, the Nuremburg Charter, the Hague Declaration and the Charter of the United Nations. The Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty II has still not been ratified by the US or Russia: they both have about 40,000 war heads each — an increase from the early 1970s, when the first SALT treaty was signed.
Thus it was a total fraud in May when the nuclear weapons states and their supporters (including Australia) argued for and won an indefinite extension of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty with the claim that this would contribute to eventual nuclear disarmament.